What are Pakistan's Kirana Hills—which came up during DGMO briefing
What's the story
Kirana Hills, a fortified defense area in Pakistan's Punjab province, came up during a press briefing of India's top military officers on Monday.
The site is rumored to contain a part of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal.
However, Air Marshal AK Bharti, Director General of India's Air Operations, has rejected the claims that Kirana Hills were hit during 'Operation Sindoor.'
"We have not hit Kirana Hills," he said firmly during the tri-services briefing on Monday.
Military actions
India's recent military operations and their implications
India struck nine terror camps inside Pakistan and POK on May 7 after a terrorist attack in Kashmir's Pahalgam killed 26.
Pakistan then attacked Indian military and civilian areas with mortar shells, drones and missiles.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) responded by hitting 11 military sites deep inside Pakistan with air-launched precision weapons.
One of the main targets of India's Operation Sindoor was the Nur Khan military base, located close to Rawalpindi, the military headquarters of Pakistan.
Strategic strike
Nur Khan airbase: A key target in Operation Sindoor
The base is home to the country's primary transport squadrons and is vital to strategic airlift operations. It also holds C-130 Hercules and IL-78 mid-air refuelers.
The strike on this base had high strategic value due to its proximity to the headquarters of the Strategic Plans Division, which manages Pakistan's nuclear arsenal.
Nuclear speculation
Kirana Hills: A nuclear storage site?
With India hitting several terror targets, speculation had been rife on social media about a possible strike on Kirana Hills.
Several pictures, videos and maps were shared indicating an explosion at this site in the Sargodha district of Pakistan's Punjab province.
The facility is strategically located near Sargodha air base and Khushab nuclear plant, making it an area of interest for India and Pakistan.
It is suspected to be a storage site for Pakistan's nuclear warheads.
Kirana Hills
Facility suspected to be storage site for nuclear warheads
"At Khushab, 200 km south of Islamabad, there are four heavy water reactors dedicated to production of weapons-grade plutonium," a report in the World Nuclear Association that was updated in February 2025 wrote.
The Kirana Hills facility, which covers almost 68 square kilometers and has a 39-kilometer perimeter, is designed with a multi-layered defense system.
Pakistan's Special Works Development (SWD) section, an engineering wing in charge of developing sensitive military infrastructure, has built at least 10 protected tunnels.
Other info
Facility is well connected by road, rail and air
According to Colonel Vinayak Bhat (Retd), writing for The Print, these tunnels are made of reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and have thick walls that can sustain high-impact bombs.
The tunnels are reinforced with thermo-mechanically treated iron rods, reducing vulnerability to explosions.
He said Pakistan has made the tunnels almost impenetrable. An analysis of satellite pictures collected between 2009 and June 3, 2017, indicates how Pakistan has taken special measures to make its tunnels at Kirana Hills bombproof.
Washington
Washington strongly objected to nuclear experiments
The facility is well connected by road, rail and air.
Bhat added that the site rose to prominence when US satellites identified Pakistan's preparations for nuclear testing between 1983 and 1990.
In 1990, Washington strongly objected to the experiments, and they were cancelled.
India follows a 'no-first-use' nuclear policy.
Pakistan, however, has never publicly released a comprehensive policy statement on its nuclear weapons usage, providing it the freedom to potentially deploy nuclear weapons at any stage of a conflict.